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Book Review of Unearthly (Unearthly, Bk 1)

Unearthly (Unearthly, Bk 1)
skywriter319 avatar reviewed on + 784 more book reviews


I thought the paranormal romance YA genre was truly done for. It seemed like every single paranormal romance YA I read in the past two years were, at best, shoddy imitations of Twilight, or shoddy attempts to be the anti-Twilight. But Cynthia Hands debut novel, UNEARTHLY, brings some much-needed quality back to this genre.

I enjoyed, and would recommend UNEARTHLY, because of its characters. Clara is a gem. Even she, I think, would make fun of all attempts to label her as a personality-less damsel in supernatural distress. Clara has a refreshing sense of humor and attitude. She is above the need to engage in high school drama, which makes the drama she does inevitably get involved in easier to read about. I also really liked her family, how the hidden depths of her mothers character slowly unfold throughout the course of the novel, and Claras younger brother is wonderful, and their relationship, is so real, and relatable, despite the fact that, you know, theyre angels.

The love triangle was, I think, as reasonably good as a paranormal love triangle will get these days, in that both guys are actually very viable choices. Christian is the school god, yes, but hes also just a really good guy. But so is Tucker, despite his initial rudeness towards Clara. You really cant decide who Clara should end up withthough sometimes I suspect that Hand tries so hard to make both guys equal that they lose some appeal and realness as a result.

Definitely give UNEARTHLY a whirl if paranormal romance is your thing. And if its not, you can still give this book a try. Its the best YA book about angels out there. I dont think youll regret it.